


Quite the Pair

by thatonenerdyginger



Category: Kaze no Tani no Naushika | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 18:09:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10904667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatonenerdyginger/pseuds/thatonenerdyginger
Summary: A series of Kurotowa/Kushana drabbles, all manga based.





	1. Reliability

**Author's Note:**

> These drabbles are the result of a 100 drabbles challenge I set for myself YEARS ago (so long ago that some of the initial drabbles were posted on LiveJournal of all places). I'm finally picking back up on it.
> 
> All of the drabbles pertain to Kushana, Kurotowa, and their relationship--both platonic and romantic. Prompts/drabble titles were created using a random word generator. There's a distinct possibility that some of these drabbles will go the smut route.

The best kind of man was a see-through one, she’d decided. One whose heart she could peer straight into, whose betrayals she could predict. And he was just that man. She’d known he was a rat from the start, from the moment he was sent to the Periphery to serve under her, and although she’d been surprised when his loyalties changed from her brothers to her, from that point on his reliability and treachery was no mystery to her. Others questioned her choice of right hand man, but there was no doubt in her mind. Kurotowa was reliable, Kushana was sure.


	2. Manual

“Y’know, being a great pilot doesn’t mean I’m a great mechanic…” Kurotowa grumbled to himself. It had been years since he’d properly serviced a craft back in his Academy days, and yet he found himself under the Corvette, divested of his cloak, sleeves up to his elbows, and covered in grease. The Princess certainly had a good sense of humor and a greater sense of irony.

Kurotowa wiped the back of his hand on his face, intending to remove the grease from his face but only adding more. “Dammit,” he swore, banging his wrench against the underside of the machine in frustration. His outburst was rewarded with a torrent of fuel as he severed the gas line.

He shot out from under the Corvette with a howl, shaking like a dog. But in the middle of his swearing storm, another voice cut in.

“Complaints Kurotowa?” Kushana. “I won’t hear them. Manual labor will make you honest after all.”

The was a pause as Kurotowa wiped the fuel from his eyes and stared back at his Princess, his general, his mark. And then he laughed, just a little.

“Me, your majesty? Honest?” His usual sarcasm.

She smirked in response.

Sense of humor was right.


	3. Context

“You know, my lady, the men have been saying—”

“You know very well that I don’t care for gossip.”

“Even so, I do think this is something you need to address!” He smirked. He was clearly liking this too much, and she couldn’t be sure just why. She groaned in response. He took it as a signal to continue and cleared his throat. “You see, I believe the men are taking our relationship… out of context.”

She raised an eyebrow in response. “Out of context?”

“Yes! Why… the closeness between staff officer and commander. They’ve perverted the whole thing!” He didn’t sound genuinely concerned. In fact, she was certain he was teasing her. Still, he continued.

“Our numerous war councils, the proximity of our living quarters.” She stiffened as he drew closer to her. The audacity of it. And even so, she didn’t shove him away. “The… oh-so tender affection you reserve for me.” He was grinning now, that lop-sided grin all his own. “They speculate that I’m perhaps the closest confidante you’ve ever had.” He smelled strongly of oil, gunpowder, and leather. She looked away.

“What are you prattling on about?”

 “Every other staff officer you’ve had is dead.”

 “The cost of war.” Or the result of their loyalty to her father and brothers.

 Oh, did he grin at that. “Your highness, you seem to forget that not long ago you prolonged your escape from the battlefield, slung me over your shoulder and—”

 She drew her dagger quickly, pressing its cold, ceramic blade to his exposed throat. From the expression that crossed his face, he clearly had not been expecting it. Good. The scales had been repositioned again, in favor of the correct side.

 “Get to your point and quickly, Kurotowa, or I may be in need of another counselor.”

 A smirk. “They’re simply taking our relationship out of context, your highness.” Not that he minded.


	4. Sore

Battle ages one faster. Especially a battle fought one’s entire life.

Kushana had been fighting since before she could remember. It came naturally to her after years of court intrigue and imperial expansion. And it made her sore.

She was a young woman with the body of a war veteran, a beauty whose alabaster skin was ravaged with scars, each with a story. That one from her brother. The other from a solider when she was training. That, that, and that from the war. Even the stories made her sore; none of them truly had a happily-ever-after, despite the fact that they were those of a princess. For such a strong woman, she was amazed at how ashamed of and bothered by her scars she was.

But he wasn’t.

In fact, Kurotowa was almost enamored of them. During their more intimate moments, he showered them with kisses, traced the white, raised lines with his lips. Many a morning she’d awoken to his calloused fingertips dancing lightly over her scars as he waited for her to wake. And when she would swat his hand away, he’d give her his usual crooked grin and insist that he couldn’t help but desire physical contact with someone so gorgeous.

Kushana was sure he even had a favorite scar of hers. It was small, imperceptible to most, a tiny slice running perpendicular to the sharp line of her jaw. In a moment of weakness, during their pillow talk of all things, she’d admitted she received the scar during the retreat in which she carried him to safety in the ditches and away from the attacking bug swarm. It was his fault for having slowed her down, she’d added, embarrassed at how much she’d divulged. But, in hindsight, that was what caught his attention. She’d been scarred for his sake. Of all the men in the world, she’d endangered herself for him—and he took great pride in that fact.

True, many of her old wounds gave her nothing but pain, aches that set in as the seasons changed, soreness after a day of training. But that scar… perhaps she too enjoyed its existence. It marked her turning point, her liberation from the hate and rage of her past. Her new chapter, one that she didn’t mind sharing with him.


	5. Complication

When the Vai Emperor had sent him to the Periphery to serve under Kushana, he’d had every intention of betraying her. He knew nothing of the Princess, but knew that her ruin perfectly positioned him to take up with one of her elder brothers. He could play one brother against the other, and all the brothers against their father. With any luck, he’d escape with his pockets full, find somewhere to hide out and perhaps settle down in the West.

He’d admitted the Emperor’s plan to Kushana when she cornered him. He knew when he’d been bested, and that damned woman had seen through him from the very beginning. So he’d switched his tune. He’d serve her for the time being, knowing very well that returning to the Emperor after Kushana’s death would only lead to his own. Still, they both knew he would defect the moment the tides had turned. Neither was a fool.

But he had grown attached.

Even he was surprised and the plan he’d formulated as Kushana stared down her brother, raging at his barely-veiled threats against her mother. It had come to him quite naturally, and, while it was probably going to be the end of him, he didn’t second-guess his decision to save Kushana over his own sorry hide.

Despite the protests from his aching lungs and ribs he sung like a canary, swearing his allegiance to the Prince and the Emperor, entreating him to flee from the oncoming swarm. The anger on Kushana’s face over his apparent betrayal was too much; even as she leaned in to yell at him, sword pressed to his throat, he couldn’t meet her eyes. Only once her brother had boarded the armored Corvette did he reveal his plan.

“When I give the signal, get into the hull… I’ll give us full reverse thrust.”

Her eyes widened slightly and she gave him the faintest nod before looking back to her brother’s departing Corvette.

The moment the armored Corvette began to turn, Kurotowa gave the signal. Luckily, he’d timed everything perfectly. Their Corvette’s engine roared to life and accelerated backwards at a speed he didn’t think possible given its damaged state. He cried out in pain as he was thrust against the steering wheel again, this time snapping it off its column. The world around him began to spin as he was ejected into space.

_This is it_ , he thought. _This is how I die._ _And all because I’ve apparently fallen in love with this woman. With this cunning, beautiful, strong woman who I was sent to destroy._

_Well, this is an interesting complication indeed._


End file.
